THE DIGITAL AGE OF INFORMATION & THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
What would you guess is the #1 universal human need for people everywhere, regardless of their walk of life? Would it be Money? Love? Fame?
Nope. It’s none of those. It’s the need to feel important. Not important as in the need to have a title or being well known. Important as in everyone wants to feel they matter.
From the beginning of time one of the ways that people have always sought to feel important was by getting knowledge.
The idea is, the more knowledgeable you are, the more important you are. Everyone wants to feel important! Everyone wants to matter!
Many seek knowledge, hoping it will make them significant.
There’s a saying that seems to back that up, “Knowledge is Power”. So, getting knowledge is tied to having power. Power to get noticed.
But several passages in the Bible offer a different viewpoint.
In Proverbs 8 it says Knowledge is like silver, but wisdom is like rubies
Ecclesiastes 7, states that Knowledge is good, but Wisdom is better.
Proverbs 16, Wisdom is better than gold and silver
Knowledge is Information but Wisdom is Application. In other words, Knowledge lets you know What, But Wisdom shows What to do with it.
Getting it isn’t the same as knowing how to use it.
I’ve often said, “it is dangerous to receive more information than you know what to do with!” Knowledge is Awareness but Wisdom is Understanding. Do we understand all that we’ve been given access to?
AI can present Knowledge/Information, but only God can give Wisdom.
In this Digital Age of Information Age everyone is consumed with getting more information. I pray that we know what to do with it.
This reminds me of a scene from long ago.
All the buzz was about a new man in town. He was seen as a devout man of Faith, and everyone knew his name. He married someone from the neighborhood, but no one really knew who she was. In fact, most folks just simply referred to her as “the woman”.
One day the man and the woman were spending some quality time and a stranger appeared who was in sales. He began speaking with the woman.
He didn’t speak to the man because he saw something in the woman that made him believe she would desire his product. He was selling a version of the Encyclopedia Britannica in all the volumes. Everything she could possibly want to know was being offered to her at that moment.
Perhaps she too felt unimportant, unnoticed, and this was her chance to change things. “So, she ate, and gave some to her husband who was with her” Genesis 3:6. I think you know the rest of that story.
Are we still tempted today with information in this Digital Information Age? Do we believe this Digital Platform offers us an opportunity to get what we desire? Do we know what we desire?
The "Digital Age of Information" has many similarities to the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" that are worth our consideration.
· Both offer humanity knowledge without wisdom (guidance)
· Both allow access to as much Good as it does Evil
· Both can cause division in people and relationships
· Both can make you feel like you don’t need God or His Spirit
· Both are superficial. Not complete, but “Pleasant to the eyes”
· Both contain falsehoods
· Both can precipitate death
The acquisition of all this knowledge is not a guarantee of wisdom, and it comes with some inherited risks of being misused, misinterpreted, and misleading which will produce negative consequences. Are we ready?
We now have access to more knowledge than we can morally handle. That is the point of what is emphasized here in this story. Part of the human dilemma is that we have enormous knowledge of how to do bad things just as well as doing good things. That’s a huge responsibility.
The tree that Adam and his wife had free access to represents a dilemma; continue to trust God or establish their own personal moral autonomy.
We have entered a new era of humanity: the Digital Information Age. An era in which all types of information, data, news, fake news and various content are produced at such a high speed, providing rapid access to knowledge for all ages, whether they can handle it or not.
This accessibility was said to empower us, make us more informed and more aware of the world around us. However, for many, this avalanche of information has unleashed a raging flood within our minds and makes us feel overwhelmed, distracted, and, in many cases, paralyzed.
One study found that on average, every day a person is exposed to information equivalent to 174 newspapers. This constant exposure to new and often contradictory information has led to information overload, otherwise known as “infobesity “.
This has grave implications on our mental health and well-being.
All information aint good information. So then, what shall we do…
This is a Thompson Truth
